Make Your Own Potpourri wedding Favor

Potpourri Wedding Favors

Gather Your Flowers

If you’d like to make a batch of potpourri first look in your own back yard. Small cones, flower pods, flowers of any kind ( roses and large pettles are best). Maybe you have a year and you can save flowers from gifts from you betroved or ask family, friends and neighbors to help you save. Another source is florist shops. Pop in, tell them what you’re doing and ask if they’d be willing to let you have (or sell you for very little) any roses that go past their prime and are destined for the dumpster. You could arrange to pick them up weekly.

Dry Your Plants

Find an area in your home where you can spread newspaper and place pettles on the paper to dry. Make sure that the area does not have direct sun light and has good ventilazation.

Pull the petals from the flower heads (except if you find very tight, tiny buds, which are charming left whole) and spread loosely in a single layer over the newspaper–the more airflow, the sooner and better they will dry. Any moisture left in the petals will begin to grow mold in the finished product. Leave them to dry for 10 days to 2 weeks. If there were white roses in the mix, some will have dried to ivory-yellow; others will simply have turned brown. Even some of the prettiest colors lose their color and turn completely brown. Pick out the browns and discard.

Obtain a large, inexpensive, airtight container (such as the 5-gallon buckets that some fast-food places re-sell for $1-$2), in which to “cure” and store your potpourri.

If you are using already-dried flowers which have been hung upside-down, remove the two widest petals from the bottom of the rose, as these will be the most likely to have caught dust while hanging, and discard. Carefully pluck or snip the remaining leaves, making every effort not to crush them into crumbly pieces–they’ll be very brittle. If you have leaves that have remained green, they will be nice in the mix, as well. If you like the look of the dried flower centers, snip off the excess stem and toss them in, too

Plan Your Project

Plan which type of wedding favor you are going to make. Do you plan to pack it up in small containers or make envelope-style, lace-trimmed sachets or put it into small glass decorative jars with organza on top? You can gather into tiny “bundle” sachets (a fat tablespoon of potpourri tied up in a circle of tulle or lace, tied with ribbon printed with a wedding (or 50th anniversary) couples’ names and finished off with a tiny flower in the center of bow? Potpourri also makes adorable, inexpensive Victorian Christmas-tree ornaments–stuffed into lace “packets” cut the shape of an old-fashioned lady’s shoe; an elongated triangle with a curved pipe cleaner at one end becomes an umbrella; miniature straw sunhats with lace glued along the brim will hold a fragrant bundle in lace in crown of the hat–trim these with a few ribbons, lace and tiny flowers from the craft store, usually found in the wedding section. The end use will determine what you want your mix to look like, and influence the fragrance you select for your batch.
If you plan to use the potpourri in clear containers for your favors, you may want to add some of the other elements mentioned above such as small cone, pods, ect... to make the potpourri more attractive and interesting. Many craft stores carry small bunches of dried, real flowers, usually small and with the look of small daisies. These can be snipped at the base of the bloom and mixed in for color and interest. Many commercial potpourris include exotic plant pods, either natural or spray-painted gold or silver. Such pods are expensive. Instead, seek out some branches of the tiniest pinecones and lay them out to dry as you did the rose petals. When completely dry, break free of their branches (or leave some tiny clusters together) and leave them natural or, if you choose, spray-paint them white, green, silver or gold, allowing at least 2 days for the paint to dry. (Don’t overpaint! Leaving the inner “scales” a bit brown is a classier look.) If you’re not happy with the color of your mix, you can “cheat” by adding just a few, small petals from silk flowers to enhance the color. Also, hydrangeas dry well, although often turning brown. Once dried, they can be given a very light coat of spray paint in the color of your choice and broken into single flowers or small groups of 2-3 flowers, depending on how “chunky” you want your mix to be.

Add Your Fragrance

Just before adding the oils to your big container of petrels and exciting other elements, consider any potpourri you already have sitting around your house–has it lost its scent? Do you have a couple of bags that have been sitting in your linen closet for 4 years? Consider tossing them into the mix, for added color and interest–and additional “filler” volume for your batch. They’ll get dusted off and re-fragranced when you add the oils. If they still have some fragrance, don’t worry–it will mix nicely; sometimes mixes are the best of all.
Once you’ve assembled the “makings,” think again about the end use, because it’s time to add the potent oils that will give your potpourri its fragrance, again available at the health food store, local hobby or craft store, and don't forget online resources. If it’s for holiday wedding, consider spruce, pine, evergreen, and the traditional holiday Bayberry scents; and you might consider crushing some cinnamon sticks to mix in (cheaper at the craft store as they aren’t of food-service quality). If you’re making sachets as gifts, go with girlie fragrances such as lavender. Check out our Essential Oil Blend on the Aroma page for more ideas. Don’t buy more than 1 or 2 bottles of fragrance. These oils are very strong, and you don’t want the scent to be overpowering, giving someone a headache or allergy attack. You may want to honor someone special like grandma on your special day- your grandmother adores rose, move some of your mix to a smaller container and scent it with rose otto or rose germanium (much less expensive), just for her. Attach a special card and tell her that she is special.
Sprinkle just a few drops of oil into the batch, and using a gloved hand or a large spoon VERY gently to avoid crumbling the brittle dried petals, mix the oil-spattered petals well into the dry ones. Make sure that your container is not over-full so you can put the lid on, lay it on its side, and gently roll or “toss it” like a very fragile salad. Repeat several times until the fragrance is relatively strong. (It won’t be quite as strong as it seems, because a lot of what you are smelling will be on your hands and in the surrounding air.) Make sure the fragrance is well mixed in, so that there are no “wet spots” from too much oil. It’s better to use less oil–you can always add more. Cover the lid and let the potpourri steep for a couple of weeks. The scent will probably be strong when you first open the container–to check for the actual strength of the fragrance, put some of your finished potpourri in a bowl and take it to a room that’s completely removed from the main container. In coming and going into that room throughout the day, you should be able to determine whether you need to add more fragrance. (If the fragrance knocks you over, accumulate another large batch of petals, mix without adding additional fragrance oil, and steep again for a couple of weeks; it should be just right.) 21st Century Newz advocates Essential oils which are more expensive than fraagrance oils. If you choose to use fragrance oils make sure they are Phthalate Free.

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